Royal Highlands

TAVARES - A proposed expansion at the Royal Highlands development was shot down Tuesday in a split 3-2 vote by the Lake County Commission.Developer John Pringle sought to add 307 acres to the existing community while maintaining original plans calling for a total of 1,500 houses at the site about eight miles south of Leesburg.The same number of houses would exist, but they would have been on larger plots of land. Roughly 300 houses exist now, officials said.A majority of commissioners balked at the expansion plans.

TAVARES -- Lake County will retry its code-enforcement case against a landowner who irritated residents of the Royal Highlands golfing community by clear-cutting a shady stand of oaks and palms on his property and hiring a homeless person to patrol the barren parcel, located near the gated neighborhood's entrance. The county struck the "do-over" deal this week with lawyers for Joseph Dougherty, the property owner. Dougherty was fined $15,000 on Feb. 11 by a special magistrate who ruled that the Clermont businessman had caused "irreparable environmental damage" to the property on U.S. Highway 27 by chopping down about three dozen mature trees -- in apparent disregard of a warning from a Lake County code-enforcement officer.

LEESBURG -- A boil-water notice is in effect for the Royal Highlands subdivision because of a Thursday lightning strike that knocked out the water system. The notice went into effect Friday for 48 hours. It is expected to be rescinded Sunday, but city officials will confirm that with residents. Don Cochran, Leesburg director of water, gas, waste water and engineering, said some residents awoke Friday to no water. He said not all of the approximately 700 homes in the development lost water, but he didn't know exactly how many.

TAVARES -- A landowner who angered neighbors in the Royal Highlands retirement community by clear-cutting shady oaks and palms on his property and hiring a homeless man to stay on the barren plot claims in a legal appeal that Lake County ran "roughshod" over his rights. Joseph P. Dougherty wants a circuit judge to throw out the $15,000 penalty imposed by a code-enforcement hearing officer last month. In the legal filing, Tucker H. Byrd, an Orlando lawyer representing Dougherty, insists that Lake County was pressured by agitated residents of the gated Royal Highlands subdivision on U.S. Highway 27 and wrongly "inserted itself into what in reality is a dispute between neighbors over the removal of landscaping . . ."

LEESBURG -- A boil-water notice issued Friday for the Royal Highlands subdivision has been lifted. The notice went into effect because a lightning strike Thursday night damaged the control panel that operates the groundwater well system. Some residents had no water Friday morning, authorities said. Tests revealed Sunday that the water was safe to drink.

LEESBURG -- The oak trees are gone, and a scruffy-looking man -- perhaps homeless or perhaps paid to appear that way -- occasionally wanders the shadeless parcel near the Royal Highlands subdivision. These recent changes have residents of the gated community outraged at their neighbor, Joseph Dougherty. They blame him for creating an eyesore at the entrance to their community and inviting the homeless to set up camp there. Dougherty's property, which fronts U.S. Highway 27, now sports a tent, a grill and spray-painted signs welcoming the homeless.

Age: 66. Where I live and for how long: Royal Highlands in Leesburg, for almost eight years. Originally from: Rochester, N.Y. Educational background: I went to State University of New York at Brockport. Work experience: I was in sales for 25 years. Where I volunteer: I collect recyclable aluminum cans in Royal Highlands for Habitat for Humanity. My wife and I started this project 61/2 years ago. I also do volunteer work by helping build houses for Habitat for Humanity. What I do as a volunteer: We pick up aluminum cans in the mornings that people put out for us. I have no trouble getting volunteers to help out. There are so many people who want to help.

LEESBURG -- Residents of The Plantation at Leesburg, a mostly 55-and-older community on U.S. Highway 27, no longer will receive their water and sewer bills from developers of the subdivision. Anticipating unprecedented growth south of Leesburg, the City Commission recently voted to buy the development's water- and sewage-treatment plants for $12 million. Deputy City Manager Jay Evans said the switch also will improve services. "Obviously, the more customers you have, the easier it is to upgrade or add lines, lift stations, pumps and the like," Evans said.

LEESBURG -- Kathy Stanford is the American Contract Bridge League's Rookie of the Year -- and it's no wonder. Since learning the game a little more than a year ago, the Leesburg resident rarely lets a day go by without playing at least one game. "It's beyond fun," said Stanford, 45, a resident of Royal Highlands, a retirement community off U.S. Highway 27 south of town. "It's a true partnership game. I definitely love to play." Before December 2004, Stanford's only card games were euchre and 500, but at the urging of friend and bridge enthusiast Ron Foreman of Leesburg, she decided to give bridge a try. The former hotel sales executive was bitten by the bridge bug and, under Foreman's tutelage, won her first tournament a few months later.

I read and reread all the stories in the newspaper about the terrible violence that took the life of one of Lake County's finest. I finally realized that I was searching for something that couldn't be found. I was searching for answers that could ease my grief and anger. Although most of us citizens will never be admitted into the world of police officers, we grieve deeply as well. We grieve for each wife, child and officer who goes on with their lives knowing this could happen to their family.

LEESBURG -- The Pringle family, longtime home builders in Lake County, announced recently they will sell several of their companies to an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, giving employees the opportunity to own part of the company. Company shares are allocated to individual employee accounts according to a plan based on salary and compensation. Pringle employees with at least one year of service will be able to join the ESOP immediately and be eligible to receive allocations of company stock.

TAVARES -- Pringle Communities Inc. has withdrawn a request to build a commercial center near the Royal Highlands neighborhood, just south of Leesburg. County commissioners were scheduled Tuesday to hear the heavily protested plan to add 44,500 square feet of commercial development on almost 5 acres near the Royal Highlands entrance. Residents feared that the development would bring more traffic and noise into the neighborhood. County planners, in their staff report, said more commercial space in the area did not follow county growth plans.